Trump-Endorsed Candidate Argued Against Women's Suffrage in College

Mar. 15, 2025

John Gibbs.Photo: Scott Olson/Getty

A Michigan Republican running for Congress once argued against women’s right to vote, writing while in college at Stanford University in the early 2000s that “the United States has suffered as a result of women’s suffrage.”

In anarchived postfrom Gibbs' personal page at Stanford in 2000 and 2001, the now-candidate wrote: “Some argue that in a democratic society, it is hypocritical or unjust for women, who are 50% of the population, not to have the vote. This is obviously not true, since the founding fathers, who understood liberty and democracy better than anyone, did not believe so.”

John Gibbs.Sarah Rice for The Washington Post via Getty

Gibbs continued: “In addition, all people under age 18 cannot vote, although they too comprise a significant portion of the population. So we cannot say that women should be able to vote simply because they are a large part of the population.”

Despite the rhetoric, a spokesperson for Gibbs told CNN that the site was meant to “provoke the left,” and that the Republican “does not believe that women shouldn’t vote or shouldn’t work.”

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“John made the site to provoke the left on campus and to draw attention to the hypocrisy of some modern-day feminists. It was nothing more than a college kid being over the top,” the spokesperson told the outlet in an email. “Of course, John does not believe that women shouldn’t vote or shouldn’t work, and his mother worked for thirty-three years for the Michigan Department of Transportation!”

Gibbs, who worked as a conservative commentator before joining the Trump administration as an advisor to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, launched his U.S. Housecampaign last November.

source: people.com